1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to formatting in word processing programs, and more particularly, to methods for formatting text documents implementing rubi annotation characters.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Japanese language is known as one of the worlds most complex languages to learn, understand and speak. For use on computers, characters used in the Japanese language are generally divided into two levels based on a Japan Industry Standard (JIS). A first level known as "sui jun-1", contains about 2,965 more common Japanese characters used for basic communication. The second level is known as "sui jun-2", and contains about another 3,964 more complex and less frequently used characters. Therefore, even native Japanese speaking people have difficulty reading and understanding all Japanese characters without referencing a dictionary. To assist readers to quickly understand and pronounce less frequently used Japanese characters, it is a common practice to annotate these characters with "rubi" characters. As is well known, rubi characters are typically Japanese syllabic "kana" characters that are placed over "kanji" characters to assist the reader in quickly pronouncing the underlying kanji characters (or combination of kanji characters) in phonetic Japanese without referencing a dictionary.
FIG. 1A is a text representation of Japanese kanji characters 12 having rubi characters 10. As shown, rubi characters 10 annotate the underlying kanji characters 12. In typical cases, kanji characters 12 have one or two rubi characters 10 overlying each of the kanji characters 12. However, certain kanji characters are pronounced with more than two syllables, requiring three or more rubi characters to annotate such pronunciation. Unfortunately, when multiple rubi characters 10 annotate complex kanji characters 12, conventional Japanese word processing programs pack together all of the overlying rubi characters 10 over the selected kanji character 12. Unfortunately, packing all of the annotating rubi characters 10 over a fixed space tends to overcrowd (and sometimes overlap) the rubi characters which makes reading the rubi characters difficult and distracting.
FIG. 1B is a Japanese phrase having annotating rubi characters. In this example, a kanji character 14 lies between kana character 16 and 18, and is annotated with several rubi characters 30. Also shown are kanji characters 20, 22, 24, and 26. The small circle at the end of the kanji and kana character phrase is a period 28. For comparison purposes, kanji characters 20 and 22 only have two rubi characters 34 and 32 respectively. Because only two rubi characters annotate a single kanji character, the spacing between the annotated rubi characters is sufficiently spaced to allow a user to read the rubi characters without distraction. On the other hand, kanji character 14 is annotated with five rubi characters 30. As illustrated, the five rubi characters 30 overlap one another which unfortunately makes reading of the rubi characters difficult. The exemplary annotation of kanji character 14 was performed using E.G. Word.TM., by Ergo Soft, Tokyo, Japan.
Accordingly, when the aforementioned overlapping occurs, readers will generally have to stop and decipher each of the annotating rubi characters. Once the rubi characters are deciphered, if possible, the reader may continue reading the underlying base text. However, because the reader had to stop his reading flow to decipher the overlapping rubi characters 30, the reader's train of thought may have been obscured. As a result, the reader will generally back-track and re-read the preceding sentence to recapture context.
As described above, many conventional Japanese computer word processing programs are capable of applying rubi annotation to assist readers in phonetically sounding out and understanding particularly difficult Japanese characters. However, these programs are not well suited to handle rubi annotation when more than two rubi characters annotate a single underlying kanji character. The publishing industry typically implements expensive typesetting machines that have complex mechanical devices for performing accurate custom rubi formatting. However, custom rubi formatting typically involves intensive manual labor to twist levers and rotate gears until the overlying rubi characters were sufficiently spaced apart. As a result, custom rubi formatting for most documents is a prohibitively expensive task.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods for performing rubi annotation without causing rubi character overcrowding and overlapping.